Synthetic turf has been used for years in athletic playing surfaces such as football, baseball, and soccer fields, and has more recently been used in other applications where an alternative to natural grass is desired. These applications include, for example, playgrounds, residential and commercial lawns, landscaping, jogging paths, paintball fields, tennis courts, putting greens, and dog runs. Typically, synthetic turf includes a pile fabric having a backing and a plurality of upstanding ribbons, also called face fibers or filiform formations, resembling natural grass. Many synthetic turf products also include an infill material dispersed among the upstanding ribbons, which may include sand, tire rubber crumb, and/or other particulates, either singularly or in combination with each other. The infill material simulates soil in natural turf, acts as a ballast, and/or contributes to the physical properties of the turf, such as resiliency, that make the turf suitable for a particular use.
Synthetic turf has a limited useful life, the length of which depends on the construction of the turf, the application for which it is used, and how the turf is maintained. As an example, a typical synthetic turf for use as an athletic field may have a useful life of from about 8 to 15 years. A large amount of synthetic turf is currently being used in hundreds of athletic fields and in other applications. To avoid sending that turf to landfills at the end of its useful life, there is a need for a method of recycling and reusing all or portions of the synthetic turf. There is also a need for a synthetic turf that is recyclable.
Recycling of a product typically refers to converting that product into a material or product for another use or extracting at least one of the individual components or materials of the product for use of that component or material in another product. The recycled product may be used in a similar product, such as when paper products are recycled to make other paper products, or may be used in a completely different product, such as when tires are recycled to make asphalt.
Many synthetic turf products include components that are not found in carpet and that are incompatible with, or at least undesirable in, conventional carpet recycling methods. For example, conventional carpet does not include infill. Typical infill materials for synthetic turf installations include sand, tire rubber crumb, and/or other particulates, either singularly or in combination with each other. Thus, recycling synthetic turf presents a unique problem not encountered in the recycling of carpet.
U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2012/0315816 entitled “Methods of Recycling Synthetic Turf, Methods of Using Reclaimed Synthetic Turf, and Products Comprising Same” to Fowler et al. describes a process to recycle synthetic turf either by using an agglomeration step or feeding turf fragments directly into an extruder to form extrudates in various forms. The Fowler application makes brief mention that turf infill can be removed by hand or by machine in paragraph [0040], but no other specific information is given regarding the importance of and degree of removal that is desirable for such process.
U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2012/0309858 entitled “Method for Recycling Synthetic Turf and Product” to Taylor et al. mentions some desirable percentage ranges of turf infill removal, but only information regarding onsite turf infill removal equipment is described or otherwise suggested (e.g., the “Turf Muncher” brand apparatus available from Field Away of Dalton, Ga.). Mention is made of simply turning turf upside down and beating the turf to remove infill if a “Turf Muncher” is unavailable.
Nonetheless, as explained in more detail herein, there remains a need for an improved method and apparatus for efficiently recycling and reusing an existing synthetic turf to avoid sending the entire synthetic turf to a landfill when it is no longer useful.